1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate delivery apparatus disposed between a coating and developing processing apparatus for coating a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer, a glass substrate, or the like with a resist and developing the substrate and an aligner for exposing the substrate coated with the resist, and a coating and developing processing system provided with the substrate delivery apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the process of photoresist processing in semiconductor device fabrication, a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as xe2x80x9ca waferxe2x80x9d) is coated with a resist and exposed in accordance with a predetermined pattern, and thereafter a developing solution is supplied to the wafer, thereby performing developing processing for the wafer.
The aforesaid processing is hitherto performed using a system in which a coating and developing processing apparatus for performing resist coating and developing processing is connected to an aligner. Such a resist coating and developing processing apparatus includes processing units for individually performing a series of processing required for coating and developing processing for a wafer such as hydrophobic processing (adhesion processing) for enhancing adhesion of a resist, resist coating processing for coating the wafer with the resist, heat processing for heating the wafer coated with the resist to cure the resist, heat processing for heating the exposed wafer at a predetermined temperature, developing processing for performing developing processing for the exposed wafer, and the like, and the delivery of the wafer between these processing units is performed by a wafer transfer device. An interface section for delivering the wafer is disposed between the coating and developing processing apparatus and the aligner. The wafer coated with the resist by the coating and developing processing apparatus is delivered to the aligner via this interface section, and the wafer exposed by the aligner is delivered to the coating and developing processing apparatus via this interface section.
Incidentally, in order that a wiring pattern formed on the wafer or the like has even and uniform line width, in the aforesaid series of processing, it is specially important to manage a period of time from when the exposure of the wafer by the aligner is completed until the wafer undergoes heat processing.
The wafer transfer device which receives the wafer exposed by the aligner via the interface section and transfers it to a heat processing unit, however, performs delivery of the wafer from/to various kinds of processing units as described above, and thus the wafer transfer device is very busy. As a result, there is a disadvantage that in some cases the exposed wafer is kept waiting without being immediately transferred to the heat processing unit.
The present invention is made to settle the aforesaid disadvantage, and its object is to provide a substrate delivery apparatus and coating and developing processing system each capable of precisely managing a period of time from when the exposure of a substrate is completed until the substrate undergoes heat processing and forming uniform line width.
To attain the aforesaid object, a first aspect of the present invention is a substrate delivery apparatus, disposed between a coating and developing processing apparatus for coating a substrate with a resist and developing the exposed substrate and an aligner for exposing the substrate coated with the resist, for receiving and sending the substrate from/to these apparatus and aligner, comprising: a thermal processing section having a heating section for heating the substrate; and a first transfer section for transferring the substrate carried in from the aligner directly to the thermal processing section and transferring the substrate carried in from the coating and developing processing apparatus side to the aligner.
A second aspect of the present invention is a substrate delivery apparatus, disposed between a coating and developing processing apparatus, for coating a substrate with a resist and developing the exposed substrate and an aligner for exposing the substrate coated with the resist, for receiving and sending the substrate from/to these apparatus and aligner, comprising: a first holding section out of which the substrate is allowed to be carried to the aligner side, for receiving the unexposed substrate and temporarily holding it; a second holding section disposed on the same plane as the first holding section, into which the substrate is allowed to be carried from the aligner side, for receiving the exposed substrate and temporarily holding it; a thermal processing section having a heating section for heating the substrate; a first transfer section adjoining the coating and developing processing apparatus and disposed to be surrounded by the first holding section, the second holding section, and the thermal processing section, for transferring the substrate between the coating and developing processing apparatus, the first holding section, the second holding section, and the thermal processing section; and a second transfer section allowed to carry the substrate out of the first holding section and to carry the substrate into the second holding section, and allowed to carry the substrate into/out of an in-stage on which the substrate which has not been exposused in the aligner is mounted and an out-stage on which the exposed substrate is mounted.
A third aspect of the present invention is a coating and developing processing system connected to an aligner for exposing a substrate coated with a resist, comprising: a coating and developing processing apparatus for coating the substrate with the resist and developing the exposed substrate; and a substrate delivery apparatus disposed between the aligner and the coating and developing processing apparatus, the substrate delivery apparatus, comprising: a thermal processing section having a heating section for heating the substrate; and a transfer section for transferring the substrate carried in from the aligner directly to the thermal processing section and transferring the substrate carried in from the coating and developing processing apparatus side to the aligner.
In the present invention, such a structure that the exposed substrate is delivered directly to the thermal processing section via the transfer section possessed by the substrate delivery apparatus to undergo heat processing is provided, whereby the exposed substrate can be immediately transferred to the thermal processing section to undergo heat processing without being kept waiting. Consequently, a period of time until the substrate which has undergone exposure undergoes heat processing can be precisely managed, and thus uniform line width can be formed.
These objects and still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.